Six resources to make an impact as an education leader

The role of an educational leader has evolved over recent years. There’s now strong evidence which shows that educational leadership that is focused on improving teaching and learning practices will create better outcomes for students.

Educational leaders must be effective team leaders who foster a culture of continuous improvement and empower others to develop and execute goals to improve outcomes for students.

If you have just stepped into a leadership role, or you’re working towards becoming an educational leader, your potential is not limited to personal experience. There’s a number of resources that will help develop your education leadership skills.

Here are six resources that will prepare you to make an impact as an education leader.

DET Teaching & School Leadership

The Government’s Department of Education and Training offers a handy one-page guide to Teaching and School Leadership. Summarising the important aspects of educational leadership, the page links off to relevant government reports as well as documents that detail the professional standards for teachers and principals.

What’s really interesting here are two links that outline the impact that teachers can have on learning outcomes and the future lives of their students. Teacher Effectiveness Systems, Frameworks and Measures: A Review offers a deep dive into the evaluation of teachers’ effectiveness, drawing on the experiences of many different countries. Factors associated with effectiveness, influence and impact are summarised as a ready reckoner you can use to compare and contrast with your teaching team.

The second link – Investigating the key characteristics of effective teachers: a systematic review – breaks down each characteristic and reviews its importance in determining student outcomes. This enables evidence-based discussions about teachers’ personality, collegiality, and communication, among other elements common to all teachers.

AITSL Leading for Impact

The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), has worked with the Department of Education and Training to create a national school leadership development framework. Leading for impact: Australian guidelines for school leadership development has been designed by AITSL to promote exceptional school leadership.

The AITSL resource provides a great guideline for all things related to the educational leader and the development of school leadership. If you’re a teacher with ambitions to move into the top job, there’s plenty of information on preparation and development for the principal role. If you’re a principal, there’s additional material on leadership development and leading for impact.

Being committed to improvement through evidence-based resources, AITSL also lists an extensive bibliography that provides further avenues for research and reading.

ACEL Resource Centre

The Australian Council for Educational Leaders (ACEL) is a paid subscription service which offers a wide range of resources that are specifically created for the educational leader. With over 700 items which includes everything from articles to podcasts, these resources are aligned to AITSL’s Australian Professional Standard for Principals – Professional Practices. They give you the opportunity to drive your own professional development at a time, location and pace that suits you.

This resource centre is likely to support and enhance the professional development of both students and graduates of SCU Online’s Master of Education. With a focus on inquiry-based practice, this qualification enables and encourages students to examine their own professional practice. One element of this is academic inquiry, using established review practices to help identify and investigate real-world problems in schools. The course prepares education leaders to review classroom challenges and propose solutions to establish the best way forward.

The second element of this inquiry-based practice is critical reflection. It’s not something that comes naturally to most people, however, SCU’s Master of Education offers techniques that can be used to improve your own educational and leadership practice. Through self-reflection, you can identify your weaknesses and gaps in your knowledge. By developing the ability for self-examination, SCU students and graduates will have the skills to navigate the ACEL portal with ease and gain maximum benefit from the multiple resources.

Curriculum & Leadership Journal

If you’re looking for the ultimate resource for education leaders, the Education Links page on the Curriculum and Leadership Journal website should be your go-to bookmark. There’s no welcoming pre-amble or distracting images here, just a list of links – plain and simple.

The list is broken into sections for organisations and services, professional associations, councils and learning areas. There are also links to international education directories, so you really can have the world at your fingertips.

Child Australia Resources

Child Australia is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to improving outcomes for children. Their resources page is an extremely useful guide for practitioners of childhood education, as well as parents, community members and other stakeholders.

Rather than just creating a collection of links, Child Australia has created the NQF Guides Browser, which brings together the documents relating to the National Quality Framework (NQF) for early years learning and school-aged care. This is a user-friendly website that will lead you through the NQF and also provides a handy reference guide to quickly find any element that you are looking for.

Child Australia’s resource page would be an invaluable tool for students of SCU’s Master of Education, which provides guides to a number of topics including Cultural Connections and Inclusion Readiness.

ACECQA Education Leadership

The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA ) identifies the important role of educational leaders to challenge and extend the practices of teachers. ACECQA recommends reflective practice in educational leadership as the best way to support school communities.

This website provides a best-practice definition of the educational leader, with links to blogs that feature regular articles on the topic. You’ll also find a wide range of education leadership videos with interviews, subject matter expert presentations and webcasts.

All of these online destinations provide an opportunity for professional development through reading, watching and listening on the specific topic of educational leadership. They are also an excellent reference library to have on hand when you embark on a Master of Education with SCU Online.

Inspired to develop your education skills even further? As a 100% online course, the Master of Education with SCU Online can be completed in as little as 16 months, in your time, on your terms, while you continue to work. In addition to the online resources listed above, you’ll have access to a unique online environment with fellow students, learning facilitators and course coordinators. Throughout your studies, you’ll also be able to consult with your own dedicated Student Success Adviser to help with all your enquiries.

Find out how you can start your education journey at SCU with a Master of Education specialising in Educational Leadership, call our team on 1300 863 819.